Fine, Let's Talk
by Swa-Sa Masou
Summary: Takes place in the middle of 10.5, Running to a Stand Still. What could have happened if Haley had only kicked out Carrie and had let Nathan talk. Rated for language and, well, the implied sexual content.


A/N: I understand Haley had every right to be angry once she saw Carrie and Nathan in the bathroom, but it seems like Nathan always gets in a lot of trouble and Haley is always instantly forgiven. I wanted to write something that shows them working it out since Nathan actually did very little wrong.

"Carrie, you need to get out of this bathroom right now." My son's nanny just hopped into the shower with me. My wife is going to be home any second and my son's nanny was in the shower with me. I thought a kiss was bad, but this is- the only way this could be worse is if Haley walked in. Oh shit. "Haley, oh my gosh. Haley. This isn't this. Okay? I Swear to you I didn't. Look, I haven't- Carrie, tell her!"

I'm panicking and rambling and Haley has to believe me. She knows I would never do this to her. Right? Carrie has to tell her that I was making her leave. Just- holy shit.

"Nathan loves me and I love him back" I saw my wife's face morph from the absolute shock that had struck her when she entered the bathroom to complete fury. I barely registered what this psycho was saying because I had never seen Haley look this angry. She's been plenty angry at me for boneheaded things I've done in the past, but nothing like this.

Haley started speaking in a low voice, so low I could barely hear it before it rose to a shriek. "I want you to get the hell out of my house RIGHT NOW!" Haley grabbed the hair at the base of that vile woman's neck and bodily removed her from the bathroom.

Her fury then turned on me. I tried to cut her off. "Haley, look, I know this looks bad."

"You're damn right it looks bad, Nathan! What the hell are you doing? Not fifteen minute ago we were on the phone and you were saying you loved me-" Her voice broke and she turned to run from the bathroom.

"Haley wait, hear me out." I started to run after her, then realized I was still wrapped in my towel and decided I should not be in anything that would bring her mind back to the shower. It was likely the bedroom door was already locked anyway.

Clad in just my old basketball shorts, I made my way down the hall to find that, yup, the door was locked. "Haley?" I knocked softly. She's got to let me in. We've been married for years. We've been through some really tough stuff, she's got to listen to me.

I knocked softly again. "Hales, come on. Let me in. Let me explain."

I heard her move in the room, good sign, right? "Nathan, just go. I can't deal with this tonight."

"Haley, you're my wife. I'm not leaving. So either you can let me in and we can talk or you can leave me out here and I'll talk anyway with the possibility of waking our son."

The door swung open. "You leave him out of this, Nathan Scott, do you hear me? The fact that you would even say-"

I interrupted her, "Hales, it got you to open the door." I said as I stepped through the doorway so she couldn't shut it in my face again."

She was mad, but she was trying to hide a brief moment of amusement behind the scowl. "You know, usually the only thing you two have in common is basketball, but every once in a while, I see the brother part in you and Lucas. That's exactly the type of thing he would have done when we were kids and I wouldn't share." She shook her head and turned around to sit on the bed. "Fine, you want to talk? Let's talk."

It looked like she was going to let me just start, which was her right. I said I would explain and now she was giving me a shot. I took a breath, unsure where to start, but I didn't get a chance.

"You want to talk? Fine, let's talk. Let's talk about how this family has been through hell. You got hurt and everything that we thought was going so fantastically came crashing down. On top of that, you started to have all of your problems that went along with being in a wheelchair. You needed me and I was there. You got moody and depressed and I stayed supportive. You even got to the point where your behavior was scaring our son and I stayed here, I stayed with you, and most importantly- I stayed faithful. It would have been so easy for me to pack up my things, and Jamie's, and move out and leave you looking for your answers at the bottom of the bottle. But, I didn't. It would have been easy for me to find someone to satisfy what you didn't while you were recovering. But. I. Didn't. Now I come home, after one of the most emotional nights of my life, being locked in a freaking library with the fiancé and exgirlfriend of my best friend, both of whom are my good friends, sniping at each other and all I want to do is sink into bed with my husband. No, I can't do that because he's in the shower with our whore of a nanny. So yes, Nathan, let's talk about that.

Everything she said was true. Every word that felt like a punch to the gut was true. She had done everything for me and coming to see what she saw… I can't imagine. "Haley, all of what you've had to deal with has been bad. I get that. I owe you a lot. But the reason why you did what you did is the same reason that what you saw is not what it looks like. We love each other. You love me and I love you. Always and Forever. I promise you that hasn't changed and it won't ever change. What you saw was our psycho now ex-nanny being wildly out of line. You walked in at the wrong time. Seriously, 30 seconds later and it would have been me telling you what happened after I'd already kicked her out."

Her eyes were still looking like she was trying not to cry, but she didn't quite as angry. She crossed her arms and crossed her legs, sitting on the bed, waiting for me to continue.

"She's got this weird crush. She thinks it's reciprocated, but it's not. I promise. There's been some flirting that I didn't think much of. You've got to remember what it was like for us in college. I was a star athlete, I had lots of girls flirting with me and you laughed it off with me because you knew then, just like now, that I _only_ have eyes for you. I'm not used to flirting being a big deal." I hesitantly took a step toward the bed. She didn't react so I took another one, and another. I sat down on the bed, but kept a safe distance between us.

"There are a lot of little things that when I say them all out loud, are going to sound really bad. We've been over this, Haley, you're the smart one here. Guys are dumb, and me especially." She let out a giggle at that. Very good sign. "I love you. I will always be faithful to you and I was just as angry as you when she got into that shower with me. I wasn't looking, I thought it was you because who the hell else would be getting into our shower with me? You had just said you were on your way home, why would I be in the shower with someone when I knew you were on the way?"

She turned her body toward me and brushed her hair out of her face. She may have been coming around to my explanation. "Okay, you're right. You're right." She let out a long sigh. "I need to know what else. You said a lot of little things, Nathan, I need to know what else."

I clasped my hands in front of me. "Okay, uh, well first, when we had that dinner, I was struggling to get dressed and she came to the door and said that as a nanny, she was basically a nurse and helped me get my-uh- pants pulled up." Haley's face darkened, so I tried to quickly move on, knowing it was only going to get worse. "that night at Tric, when you were gone the whole night, she was being flirty and I kept pushing her away. You can ask Owen about that. He saw me repeatedly send her away. That night, when you had me check for clowns on the terrace, she was in the pool, uh skinny dipping. I tried not to look once it registered how she was and I went back inside. I talked to her and told her it was unacceptable."

"Nathan, you should have told me. You should have told me and we should have fired her right away. It's not okay for someone to behave that way." She let out another sigh. "Okay, is there anymore that I need to know?

This last one was going to send her over the edge. I knew it before I even opened my mouth. "Okay, what you need to understand about this last one is that we haven't seen much of each other since it happened and I was already going to tell you tonight." I know I looked worried and her face started to take on an angry expression before I even told her what it was.

"Tell me what?" She gave me one of the darkest looks I've ever seen from my wife and I tried to subtly move slightly away.

"When I was helping Jamie with some painting the other day, she came in and said she'd take over. I got up to walk out of the room and she told me I had some paint on my face. I wiped at my face and asked if I got it. She said no and reached toward my face. You know how you just instinctively close your eyes when someone reaches for your face? Yeah, I did that, and the next thing I know, she- uh- she… kissed me. I pulled away and told her that couldn't happen ever again. I told her I didn't feel anything for her. Haley please."

If she had looked angry before, she looked outright murderous now. "SHE KISSED YOU?" Haley shrieked. This was pretty much how she'd sounded when she threw Carrie out of the bathroom. "She kissed you and you didn't tell me about it until now." Haley had jumped up from the bed and was pacing back and forth. "When I get my hands on that bitch, I'm going to kill her."

And my wife was irate. The thing is, she didn't seem to be terribly mad at me, which, you know, is good.

"Haley, baby, slow down. Come on, sit back down." She looked at me with narrowed eyes and paused her pacing for a moment before continuing on, muttering under her breath. "Haley," I pulled at her hand until she landed in my lap on the bed. "Haley, talk."

"I'm not sure what else there is to say. I'm going to freaking kill her. She tried to steal my son and my husband. Which, by the way, we are never employing a nanny that is anywhere close to pretty ever again, do you hear me? You are still in big trouble for how long you let that go on. But I am going to kill her."

She turned her head to meet my eyes. "You are mine, Nathan. No matter how busy either one of us gets, no matter what are lives are like or who is in them. You. Are. Mine. No other way." She leaned forward and kissed me.

I pulled back and looked my beautiful wife in the eyes. Despite the yelling and the declarations of murder, this conversation probably couldn't have gone much better for me. "I love you Haley James Scott."

She smiled at me, but with an evil-type glint in her eyes that meant I wasn't going to like what she had to say next. "I love you too, Nathan Scott, but you're still sleeping on the couch tonight."

A/N: I tried to fix it. Hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
